this is a kindness
by weasley-twins-41
Summary: "Rory noticed out of the corner of his eye that Amy had collapsed. A droid was retreating from her still form, his hand outstretched." Oneshot. Rory-centric. S6, E10- The Girl Who Waited. Amy/Rory


**Oh my heart, you guys. **

**I am gonna DIE over how beautiful "The Girl Who Waited" is. The episode never fails to break my heart EVERY SINGLE TIME. Karen and Arthur have such **_**chemistry**_**. I love Amy and Rory together. They are so sweet. **

** By the way, Amelia is Future!Amy and Amy is regular Amy.**

Amy, Amelia and Rory forced their way through the white doors, back to the gallery. Amelia charged ahead, slashing down and whacking Handbots left and right. She was aggressive and fearless, not backing down at all. She quickly and expertly took down every robot in her path.

Rory ducked beneath the outstretched arms of a Handbot. He aimed a kick at its shins and brought it down heavily. His wife- his younger wife- was bobbing and weaving just as nimbly as he was, the fear sparking adrenaline into their veins. Together they shoved down a Handbot. As the robot hit the ground, its head exploded in a shower of sparks.

Rory, breathing hard, spun around and screamed to Amelia, "Come on!" If she stayed behind, she would surely be overcome or killed, and there would be nothing they could do.

"Go!" she screamed. "I've got your back!"

Bristling with frustration, Rory waved Amy ahead, pulling her close and running. She was so very different from Amelia- no wrinkles, a lighter step and technically more attractive. But this was not the time to be thinking about that. He had to get Amy to safety. She _would not_ spend another day in this prison.

Amy screamed as she came face-to-face with a Handbot, who appeared out of nowhere. She ducked past it reflexively, and Rory tried to do the same. Again, the robot repeated its monotonous phrase: "Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness."

Rory bashed a robot on the head with his hand futilely, hoping it would do something to get the white droid off his back. He remembered Amy's move back in the courtyard, slamming the robot's hands together. There was a high pitched noise, and the robot was dead.

As he took down the robot, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Amy had collapsed. A robot was retreating from her still form, his hand outstretched.

"NO!" he yelled, dashing to his beloved wife. The Handbots' touch would kill them! He prayed to whatever God there was that his wife was still breathing. The fear and oncoming grief clutched at his chest, suffocating him, making it too difficult to breathe.

He seized a portrait of the Mona Lisa and swung it overhead in a fit of rage, screaming like a wild man. Rory bashed the painting over the robot's shiny cranium, making something collapse inside of it. The robot vomited sparks and went out of commission.

His rage suppressed, Rory kneeled down next to Amy, lifting her into his arms. Amelia's battle cries echoed throughout the gallery, accompanied by the mini explosions of the Handbots. Rory stood, sprinting to the TARDIS at the end of the room. Amy's head lolled as he ran, and he looked down at her, making sure that she was stable. Her eyes were half-open, glassy and vacant. Her lips were parted, and Rory could feel the gentle puffs of breath that barely came.

_Oh, dear God, please let her be all right,_ Rory thought. He wasn't religious in the slightest, but he figured some type of hope would do him good right about now.

As he reached the TARDIS doors, he kicked one open fiercely. The Doctor sprinted down from the console and put his jacket over Amy as Rory laid her on the ground. The fear coursed through him, making a haze of red come over his eyes.

"Uhm," the Doctor said with a hand on Amy's throat. "It's just an anesthetic. She'll be fine."

As the Doctor stood, Rory sighed in relief. He brushed Amy's hair away from her face, caressing her cheek. The immense amount of love he held for this fiery Scottish ginger knew no bounds. He had no idea what he would have done if she had died.

The slam of the door jerked Rory out of his thoughts. He looked up at the Doctor in confusion. Where was Amelia?

"What are you doing?" Rory asked, breathless from the run. He stood rapidly, facing the Time Lord.

"I lied to her, Rory," the Doctor said, with great sadness in his eyes.

"Doctor?" Amelia yelled from outside. She pounded on the doors furiously.

"There can never be two Amys in the TARDIS- the paradox would be too massive," he sighed.

Incredulousness streamed through Rory. "But you can't just leave her there! She'll die!"

"Doctor!" Amelia screamed. "Doctor, let me in!"

"No, she'll never have existed!" the Doctor yelled, his voice cracking. "When we save our Amy this future won't have happened!"

Rory couldn't believe his ears. "But she happened! She's there!" he screamed, gesturing angrily at the door. How could the Doctor not save her? She was his wife, even if she was old! How could he leave her behind?

"Doctor!" Amelia screamed, and as she did, the Doctor closed his eyes. "I trusted you!"

"No, she's not real!" the Doctor insisted to himself.

"She _is _real! _Let her in!" _Rory demanded, standing face to face with the Doctor.

"No! Look, we take this Amy, we leave ours! There can only be one Amy in the TARDIS! Which one do you want?" the Doctor stressed. He grabbed Rory's wrist as Amelia banged on the door, placing it on the latch. "It's your choice." The anger was gone now, replaced by that immensely deep sadness that Rory would never understand.

Rory stared at him, still breathing hard. He couldn't believe the Doctor. The Doctor was putting two lives directly into Rory's hands. Whomever he picked, the other would suffer.

"This isn't fair," Rory seethed. He swallowed, trying to hold back the lump in his throat, as well as the tears. "You're turning me into you!"

"Your choice, Rory," he said simply.

"I-I…" Rory stammered. The Doctor walked away, going back to the TARDIS console as Amelia banged on the door again. He gaped after him helplessly.

"Doctor?" Amelia yelled once more. "Doctor! Doctor?"

Rory could not bear the panicked screams of his wife. He'd been a nurse far too long, he'd heard too many screams like that to just ignore them. He reeled, the guilt and the grief and the pain all coming together as one. Rory pressed his hands to his mouth as the tears bubbled up.

"DOCTOR!" Amelia bellowed. But the Time Lord ignored her. He pulled a lever on the controls.

There was a short, but painful silence.

Then, "Rory? Please." Amelia's hushed, choked voice came floating through the door.

He looked up, startled, to see Amelia's hand pressed against a pane of the window. He pressed his hand to hers through the glass.

"The look on your face when you carried her… me… her… when you carried her away. You used to look at me like that," she said quietly through the door, her voice marred by the tears that were certainly carving their way down her face. Rory's chin trembled, and the tears finally spilled over. They ran down his face quickly and profusely, seeming to race each other. He pressed his forehead to the wood of the door, making no effort to hide what he was feeling.

Amy's next words seemed to shatter him, because of the absolute, innocent honesty. "I'd forgotten how much you loved me. I'd forgotten how much I loved being her- Amy Pond in the TARDIS, with Rory Williams."

The grief and pure guilt surged and surged, until he felt like he was going to burst at the seams. He _could not_ go through with his decision. He no longer cared if there was a paradox in the TARDIS. He was going to let her in. "I'm sorry, I can't do this," he choked, his words riddled through with sobs, the tears now pouring down his cheeks. Rory reached down and began to unlock the door.

"If you love me, don't let me in." This shocked Rory. Of course he loved her- he loved her with every fiber and pore of his being. He would never, ever leave her or let her go. "Open that door- I will, I mean it. I don't wanna die. I won't bow out bravely." Amy Pond, not brave for once? Impossible. "I'll be kicking and screaming. Fighting, to the end."

Rory's heart ached _so much_. He refused to believe that his Amelia was going to die. A sob escaped his throat, and he forced words out. "Oh, Amy. Amy, I love you." Never before had he meant those three words that fiercely. His sentence died away in another sob.

"I love you, too," Amelia sobbed. "Don't let me in. Tell Amy- your Amy- that I'm giving her the days." Even more tears rolled down Rory's cheeks, falling off his chin and nose. "The days with you…the days to come.

"I'm so, so sorry," Rory whispered, not able to do much more than that. The incapacitating grief ripped him apart. His beloved Amelia Pond was just on the other side of that door, and there was nothing he could to do save her.

"The days I can't have," she said. "Take them. Please. I'm giving you my days."

"I'm so, so sorry," he repeated, still crying. With a huge effort, he unclamped his shaking, pale fingers, and let the lock click back into place.

Rory turned away from the door. His face was completely wet from the tears that still fell. The sound of Handbot feet floated through the wooden barrier.

Rory panicked. He had no desire at all to hear his wife die.

"Doctor," he rasped, the grief and pain and guilt raging through him. "Doctor, please. I can't take this."

The Doctor stared at him for a moment, seeming to understand. He reached for a lever on the console and pulled it.

As the familiar TARDIS sounds tolled, one voice floated above them.

_"Do not be alarmed. This is a kindness."_


End file.
